Whole grains are an important part of a balanced diet. Consumption of whole grains provide many health benefits including lowering the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. Whole grains have also been found to promote weight management, lower cholesterol and may protect against cancer.
Because of the beneficial attributes of whole grains, there exists a need to incorporate whole grains into different food products in order to provide these benefits to consumers who, due to busy lifestyles, are not otherwise able to sit down to consume a bowl of cereal or oatmeal.
Prior attempts have been made to provide consumers with beverage products containing whole grains. However, such beverages provide substantial obstacles in that the grains tend to settle to the bottom of the beverage, separate, and retrograde, in addition to other unpalatable and unacceptable characteristics.
For the aforementioned reasons, a need exists for a stabilizer system for a whole grain beverage that is healthy and easy to drink on the go wherein the drink is shelf stable and the grain does not settle to the bottom of the beverage container.